Thought I'd tryout some variants of the rod walker with different wand setups than the standard fireball wands.

Supporter:<4*enhanced magic missile (CL9)> Although less damaging than the standard, this design is very useful supporting close-combat mechs as it can fire into melee without endangering friendlies. Also useful against enemies with fire immunity or resistance, or incorporeal creatures.

Summoner: 4*summon monster III (2*celestial hippogriffs, 2*celestial eagles) (CL10) This design is good support for other mechs, providing troops to hold off boarders. It can also be useful in any terrain with short lines of sight. Because celestial eagles are from the summon monster II list, you get 1d3 for each wand you activate. If the pilot speaks celestial it can also be useful for tactical reconaisance.

Dissolver: 4*extended melf's acid arrow (CL9) Designed to kill other mechs, since most materials do not count hardness versus acid. With a 760 ft. range, if it hits with all 4 arrows, it deals 8d4 damage/round for 8 rounds. It's even more dangerous if the pilot has Weapon Focus(ranged touch) or Improved Critical (ranged touch).

Please send in any of your ideas for variants.

Last edited by Raptor on Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lightning Walker: This rodwalker variant is built for (relatively) close-range combat. Usually the gunner can apply Enlarge Spell to wands, giving the mech some additional range. An 8th level wand of lightning bolt can give a lot of damage very quickly.

_________________DragonMech DM soon, with any luck.

Owner of all DragonMech books, Etherscope core book, and DCC 12.5: Iron Crypt of the Heretics.

MMP (Mobel Mage Platform): try some metamagic rods. Even though the rodwalker itself won't have any magic of its own, it greatly increases the power of the spells of mages on-board. Added flexibility, limited only by what the gunners are capable of casting. And the normal and lesser types cost bout the same as most wands you'd find in a rodwalker. Only problem is they're only good for 3 shots, so make those spells count.

Medic: Wands of Cure Wounds and Repair Damage turns the rodwalker from a weapon to a defensive item, keeping the other mechs in the unit healthy and fit for battle, as well as any ground troops that might be.

While no one can deny the firepower of the standard Rodwalker, it is also very expensive (100,000+ gp), and is not much tougher than most mechs its size. Its firepower is also overkill in many situations, and requires fairly high level casters to replace or recharge its wands. The L (or Light) model Rodwalker was designed for those who wanted a cheaper version that still had fair capabilities. Here are the stats:

- Evard's Rodwalker. Casting Black Tentacles wherever it goes, this mech can be a true terror for enemy mechs. Sidenote: it probably requires some houseruling. Basically alter combine spell so that casting 4 Evard's Black Tentacles at a time makes tentacles big enough to actually grapple a mech.- Black Legionaire. A creation of the Shadow Congress, this mech surveys old battlefields and casts Animate Dead. If that's not to your liking, then this is a variant belonging to a defector now in service of Sharlorn the Necropolis.- Legion. (Ok, so the name is too similar to the last. Cut me some slack!) Mass Enlarge Person. So you can't field a lot of mechs in a hurry? Why not bring your infantry up to mech size? If only there were an Enlarge Monster spell...- Dispel Magic. A specialty mech used to hunt down defectors, rogue necromancers, and Shadow Congress agents, this mech excels at removing enemies from the fight entirely. With the help of constructors, other variants exist, making use of Tick Tock Knock, Gearghoul Touch, Bestow Malfunction, or Inflict Damage.- Web. Used mainly against infantry, and a drow variant of the Rodwalker.- Grease. The ideal way to shut down unskilled mech pilots. Works particularly well with regular Rodwalkers, as the oilslick is quite flammable.

Of all of these, I particularly like the Dispel Magic (and variants) and the Web one. Actually, I really like web. Perhaps it's only suited to anti-infantry, but damn if it isn't cool.

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